Torch My Ride: Arson for HireSUV owners who are faced with rising gas prices have found a new way to get out from under their high car payments — arson.

This trend was spotted by a Southern California arson task force in the summer of 2005 when gas prices spiked. At one point, firefighters responding to a report of a vehicle fire arrived at the Los Angeles River Bed to find two SUVs burning at the same time.

Investigators found the arson-for-hire ring involved a new-car dealership in Cerritos, California. Debt-weary SUV owners contacted the finance manager, hoping to trade in their gas-guzzler for something cheaper. They were then put in touch with an arsonist who told them to leave the keys in the ignition and $300 cash in the glovebox. An arsonist would then take the car to a remote location and set it afire. After the car was torched, the owners would then contact their insurance company and report their vehicle stolen, expecting their debt to be cancelled. Instead, they were investigated for insurance fraud.

We Americans are just so stupid... we get ourselves in over our heads in debt to succumb to social pressures to buy the biggest, baddest, most expensive SUVs we can and then have to resort to crime to get out from under the crushing debt. When the hell is society going to come to its senses??

I thought the insurance regulations had changed years ago to the payment from the owner's insurance being the book value of the vehicle regardless of how much was owed on it. I remember it because a co-worker's wife totaled their new car just after the change over and he was stuck paying for a car he could not drive because the insurance only covered most of the amount he owed given the fast depreciation rate of vehicles in the beginning. I guess if they had gap insurance on the vehicles, it would still work, especially if they were leasing them. Still, most gap coverage requires the payments to still be made in the interim.

_________________With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none” Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."Albert Einstein

We Americans are just so stupid... we get ourselves in over our heads in debt to succumb to social pressures to buy the biggest, baddest, most expensive SUVs we can and then have to resort to crime to get out from under the crushing debt.

Lesson being...buy only the biggest, baddest, most expensive SUV you can afford.

That burning SUV doesn't look particularly big to me. Looks like one of those psuedo-trucks....some sort of econo-box disguised with SUV type sheet metal.

The so called econo crossovers aren't what they're cracked up to be either with city driving (12 mph) vs. their [Nissan Murano] claim of 17 (they lied). Highway, however, is pretty accurate and good. Too bad we don't drive the highways more often.